


Future

by Derin



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-18
Updated: 2014-05-18
Packaged: 2018-01-25 13:34:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1650452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Derin/pseuds/Derin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cassie's getting married. Her family and friends wish her well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Future

**Author's Note:**

> Protip: read this fic FIRST. Then go make yourself a cup of tea. Then come back and read madamoisellePlume's Happy Is What Happens: http://archiveofourown.org/works/1649669 .
> 
> I swear we didn't plan this.

Cassie smoothed the long, pearly white skirt and stared into the full-length mirror. It was much more extravagant than anything she would normally wear, but if there was one day in your life where you could dress extravagantly...

She caught Jordan's eyes in the mirror – hauntingly familiar eyes, eyes she'd known longer than Jordan had been alive, eyes that were currently darkened with just a little grief under the happiness and excitement.

“You were right,” Cassie said, smoothing the dress again. “This is exactly what she would have chosen.”

“Yeah,” Jordan said. “It is.” She ran her own hand down the delicate edge of Cassie's lace veil. “It goes well with the pearls, too.”

Cassie put a hand to the necklace and turned her attention back to her own reflection. The pearls were an old family heirloom, worn by her mother and grandmother, given to her great-grandmother by her fiance as a promise of a better future, and they were the exact shade of off-white that Rachel would have rolled her eyes at and called 'stodgy' before picking out a color palette to match them perfectly. Her sisters had done a good job.

Cassie turned from the mirror to inspect her bridesmaids properly. Jordan and Sara were both resplendant in their pale pink dresses, their hair pinned up neatly with flowers and jewels. Toby was nearly an adult by hork-bajir standards, and like most of the hork-bajir, had not adopted the tradition of clothing from her human friends. Instead she wore twin armbands and thighbands in matching pink and had woven matching flowers around her forehead-blades. Cassie considered fighting the tears threatening to spring into her eyes, but didn't bother. After all, it was the one day that she was expected to cry.

“Your makeup, honey, your makeup!” Ignoring the tears in her own eyes, Michelle rushed forward, tissue in hand, to dab at her daughter's. “There we go. There we go.” She ran a gentle hand down Cassie's cheek. “You're so beautiful. I can't believe this day has come. I'm so proud of you.”

“You said.” Cassie looked away, embarrassed.

<I do not understand,> Forlay-Esgarrouth-Maheen said with an andalite frown. <Her eyes will be covered by the veil, will they not? Their adornment is irrelevant.>

“Only until her husband pulls back the veil for the kiss,” Michelle explained. “And then there's the photos. We don't want running makeup in the photos.” She stepped back. “There. There you are.” Her fingers brushed the pearls. “I'm so happy to be passing these on. You look perfect.”

“Almost,” Toby said quietly. She stepped forward. There was something in her hands, something fine and brown and almost invisible against her skin. She took Cassie's hand.

“When hork-bajir choose a mate and decide to bond,” Toby explained, “their families gather the bark of their trees and work it into fine cord to wrap around their bodies. It is to remind them of the ties that bind them to their family, to their land, of the trees that share their blood and the bark that sustains their bodies.” She slipped the object around Cassie's wrist – a bracelet of woven brown cord that was soft and more pliable than any bark Cassie had ever felt. “This bark is from the children of the trees of the original hork-bajir valley, the one that you and your friends lead my parents to when you lead them to freedom. When we are forced to move, we take cuttings and plant anew, so that wherever we are will always, in some way, be our first and only home. Usually, these cords are made from the bark of old trees, but our tribe is young and new, and our trees carry little history yet. What they carry is promise, promise of a future, of a history we are building now. You are a part of this history, and I could not allow a sister of my tribe to go to her bonding unadorned.” She tugged at the bark cord, and it tightened to fit snugly against Cassie's wrist.

“Thank you,” Cassie said quietly as Toby stepped back. Toby gave Michelle a sidelong glance. “There. _Now_ she's perfect.”

There was a knock at the door, and Michelle's head snapped around to glare at it. “Who is it? Is it Ronnie? Ronnie's not allowed in, he can't see her.”

“It's just me,” Walter said in a long-suffering voice. “There's a girl out here who says she needs to see Cassie right now.”

“If it's a fan or a work thing, it can wait until she's at work,” Michelle said firmly. “No interruptions today.”

“She says she knows Cassie from... you know, the stuff. Says her name is Karen.”

Cassie spun to face the door. “Wait. Karen?”

“Karen can call back after your honeymoon,” Michelle said firmly. “No war stuff today. No work either. I'll deal with this.” She headed out of the room, her jaw set in her determined, it's-pointless-to-try-to-stop-me expression.

“I hope there's enough wedding cake,” Sara said idly.

“Have you seen the wedding cake?” Jordan responded. “There's enough wedding cake. It's _enormous_.”

“Yeah but have you seen how Dad eats? Also, Pete's here.” Sara's voice took on a dreamy tone.

“Sara? No googly eyes at the best man. It's like a law or something.”

“I'm pretty sure bridesmaids are supposed to make googly eyes at the best man.”

“Well don't.”

The door opened, and a teenage girl crept in. Dressed in jeans and a jacket, she looked decidedly out-of-place. Her eyes landed on Cassie, and widened. “Wow. You look great.”

“Um. Thanks?”

“Right. Sorry. You probably don't remember me, but we got stuck in the forest together this one time...”

“Karen! Of course I remember you!” Cassie grabbed the girl in a tight hug. “You changed the whole outcome of the war.”

“You changed the outcome of the war,” Karen mumbled. “I was mostly in the way.”

“It was your mind, your character, that determined what happened out there,” Cassie said firmly. “Without that, there's no way Aftran would have listened to me. And no way that I would have listened to her. How have you been?”

“Fine. I work with the ex-yeerks now, doing societal integration. Anyway, that's why I'm here. Some of the old voluntaries told me about all this, and we wanted to get you something nice.”

Michelle came charging back into the room, glaring at Karen. “You. Out. Whatever you have to discuss can wait. This is a wedding.”

“I'm going, I'm going,” Karen said, putting her hands up. “I just wanted to give Cassie a wedding gift in person.”

“Oh. Well. Alright then.”

“You're staying for the ceremony, I hope?” Cassie asked.

“Oh, um. I wouldn't want to intrude.”

“Pretty sure it's not intruding if the bride invites you,” said Jordan. “You can sit with our mom. She loves meeting survivors.”

Karent shrugged noncommitally and pressed something small and metal into Cassie's hand. “Here. Happy wedding day.”

Cassie stared at the key.

“It's for a holiday home,” Karen explained. “My holiday home, actually. Home of a lot of happy memories, a lot of good vibes. I left the paperwork with your dad. I thought, well, you've probably already planned your honeymoon, but you work hard and probably need a lot of breaks.”

“Thank you,” Cassie said. “But I can't... I can't. You should keep it.”

“Illim said you'd be like this,” Karen said, scrunching up her nose. “Can't take anything nice for yourself, too busy helping everyone else. So how about you 'borrow' it to use when you need, and you can give it back to me in a few years when I'm eighteen, if you still feel like it.” She put 'borrow' in exaggerated air quotes.

“Thank you, Karen. Thank you very much.” Cassie tucked the key into the sash of her dress.

“No, don't – ” Michelle threw her hands up. “Okay. Fine. Just shove it in your dress and take it with you. I guess I should be grateful you didn't just decide to get married in your work jeans.”

“It would have made all this a lot easier,” Cassie said thoughtfully.

Michelle groaned.

<Excuse me,> Forlay cut in, <but the ceremony is due to begin in ten minutes.>

“Ten minutes! Thanks, Forlay. You, Karen, come with me and I'll find you a seat. Bridesmaids, let's get you lined up. Cassie, stay in here until you hear the music. We can't let Ronnie see you by accident!” Michell grabbed Sara and Karen's arms and physically pulled them from the room, leaving Jordan and Toby to trail helplessly in their wake.

“Well,” Cassie said. Ten minutes. She took a deep, calming breath.

<Is this why you are hiding from your mate?> Forlay asked. <Because you do not wish for him to see your apprehension? It is normal to be apprehensive about such a significant event.>

“It's tradition,” Cassie explained. “It's bad luck for the groom to see the bride all dressed up before the ceremony.” She fingered the veil.

Forlay took the edge of the veil delicately in two long fingers and inspected it. <This is somewhat like the decoration for our own mating ceremonies,> she said. <We shave ceremonial designs into our childrens' fur.> She twitched her scalpel-like tailblade for emphasis. <Of course, being nearly hairless yourself, I can see why you must resort to instead weaving them in sheer cloth.>

“Lace,” Cassie laughed. “It's called lace.” Her expression sobered. “Thanks for coming, Forlay.”

<I would sooner set fire to my own pasture than miss it,> she replied with sudden ferocity. Her body was stiff, her stalk eyes drooping a little. One of them, Cassie noticed, was still watching her own tail.

“What's wrong?”

<Nothing. Nothing. This is your happy day.> Forlay clapped her hands together, a gesture she'd picked up off humans. <And we are almost ready to share that joy with all your loved ones.>

“Just because it's a happy day doesn't mean we should have to bury our sadness,” Cassie said. “Please tell me.”

Forlay sniffed, the andalite equivalent of a sigh. <I had hoped to shave the bonding-marks into my own sons' fur someday,> she said. <Hoped to meet their mates and wish them the best and watch them move on into their adult lives. Watch their fur grow back out and their minds and bodies soften with the experience of a joyful life.>

“I'm sorry,” Cassie said quietly.

<Aximili spoke very highly of you, you know,> Forlay said. <I am sure Elfangor would have, too – he trusted you enough to give you an escafil device, after all.>

“The circumstances he was facing... weren't ideal.”

<My Elfangor was stubborn,> Forlay sniffed. <He always did what he thought was right, even if it was stupid. He gave you power because he wanted you to have power. He would have committed honorable suicide before the Visser could reach him otherwise.> She looked away with her main eyes. <I would not wish to impose upon you. But since gift-giving at this time is a custom, would you be averse to me giving you something?>

“Not at all,” Cassie said.

Forlay reached into one of the folds of her _lethar_ , a saddlebag-like item that many andalite women wore to carry odds and ends, and pulled out a long, thin blue braid. <When our children shed their long baby coats, it is a custom to weave the fur into charms. It is said that if they are lost, the charms will help to call them home. They were very popular during the war, when so many of our sons were sent away. I carry them for my sons always, a ritual that has long outlasted its purpose. This is Aximili's, and I want you to have it.>

“What? No, Forlay, I... I couldn't. You should keep your sons' charms.”

<I have others,> She said. <I made so many, especially for Aximili. He was born when the war was escalating and...> she shook her head in the human style. <This one, I want to give to you. The memories of my sons are not mine alone. They helped so many people, touched so many lives. And I hope that someday when you and your new mate have children, Aximili's memory will smile on you and help them always find their way home.> She reached up to pin the charm among Cassie's braids, a single strip of blue among the black nestled under a crown of lace and flowers.

Cassie stopped fighting her tears, makeup be damned. They spilled down her cheeks and threatened to stain her dress. (If Rachel could see her, about to stain her own wedding dress...) Somewhere nearby, music began to play.

“It's starting,” Cassie whispered. “We're going to be late.”

<Then go.> Forlay pulled the veil down over her face and straightened it carefully. <I will sneak in the back and try not to cause a disturbance.>

Cassie stepped out of the room and headed towards her father, who stood offering his arm to her, smiling. His eyes shone. She wrapped her own arm around his and let him lead her forward, down the aisle. From the pews, faces watched her, beaming. The Berenson's, grief and joy warring on their faces, both feelings in agreement only about the tears they should shed. Karen, seated next to Naomi, giving her a subtle little grin and a thumbs-up. Eva and Peter, gripping each others' hands, their knuckles white. Loren, looking wistful, sat next to Forlay and Noorlin, the parents-in-law she'd never met when the husband she couldn't remember had still lived.

There were work friends, of course. Some politicicians and presidential advisors, some environmental activists and park rangers, several xenobiologists. Several hork-bajir from the Earth colony were presents, and even some of their clones from the homeworld had flown in, looking uneasy in the confined area of the church. Once again, Cassie wondered if she should have been more insistent on an outdoor wedding. But it was much too late to worry about that.

Mr Tidwell, sitting with several other ex-members of the Peace Movement, smiled at her encouragingly. Next to him, Illim watched with disconcertingly human eyes. Not all of the yeerks had chosen human forms; there were cats and dogs and parrots in the audience, and a few non-domesticated species like tigers and mountain goats. There were several anacondas draped over the backs of the pews – ex-taxxons. Bizarrely, Cassie was struck with the memory of playing weddings with Rachel as a little girl. They'd go into the Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre and all the animals would be their wedding guests. She choked back her laugh.

She knew most of the guests well. There were a few she didn't know, mostly distant relatives of Ronnie's. And Ronnie... Ronnie was standing up there, with his best man, with her bridesmaids, with their officiate, and he was smiling at her, smiling the slightly scared, nervous smile of a man who can't quite believe where he is or where he is going, but who can't wait to continue the journey.

Hands clutched tightly around her bouquet, Cassie stepped forward. The family pearls hung heavy around her neck. _A promise of a better future_. Sometimes, when she woke up screaming and the taxxon maw worrying at her mangled body became Ronnie shaking her awake and telling her it was ok, or when she was weighing reports of hork-bajir rights against reports of their environmental impact against reports of economic interests of lobby groups, or when she was drawn to go visit those gravestones without bodies... sometimes, she wondered if they'd managed to achieve that. She supposed that she always would.

But that day, for just one day... that day, she knew.


End file.
